Tag: qualitative analysis

For as long as I’ve been doing qualitative analysis I’ve been looking for ways to automate transcription. When I was doing my masters I spent more time (fruitlessly) looking for technical solutions than actually doing transcription. Speech recognition has come a a long way since then; perhaps it’s time to try again?

I came across a blog post recently that suggested it’s becoming possible using the Google Speech API. This is the same deep-learning model that powers Android speech recognition, so it seems promising.

After setting up a GCloud account (currently with $300 free credit; not sure how long that will last) installing the R libraries and running some text is simple:

#install package; run first time or to update package....
#devtools::install_github("ropensci/googleLanguageR")
library(googleLanguageR)

Once you’ve authorized with GCloud (a single line of code) the transcription itself requires a single command:

gl_speech("path to audio clip")

I tested it with a really challenging task: a 15 second clip of the Fermanagh Rose from the 2017 Rose of Tralee:

Honestly, that’s not bad — although not quite useable. It’s certainly a good base to start transcribing from. I was not expecting it do deal so well with fast speech and regional dialects. Perhaps transcription nirvana will arrive soon; not quite here yet, but quite astonishing that such powerful language processing is so easily accomplished.

• the development of a new Virtual Interaction APPlication (VIAPPL) that allows experiments in a context that allows interaction and social network analysis of emergent relationships. See www.viappl.org

•developing a network theory of attitudes based on multilayer networks using agent-based simulations and experiments using VIAPPL

• qualitative exploration of how men and women construct gender identities in “critical moments” of their lives such as dates, weddings, job interviews, having children and retiring.